Trump on ‘60 Minutes’: Says He Doesn’t Know Binance’s Founder — Weeks after Pardoning Him

With input from Forbes, the Independent, and BBC.

President Donald Trump insisted he doesn’t know who Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is — even though he pardoned the Binance founder last month — during a wide-ranging “60 Minutes” interview that also touched on the shutdown, health care and China. Pressed by anchor Norah O’Donnell on why he granted clemency to the crypto billionaire who pleaded guilty in 2023 to anti–money laundering violations, Trump shrugged:

“I don’t know who he is… I heard it was a Biden witch hunt.”

O’Donnell pushed back with an obvious optics problem: Binance helped facilitate a roughly $2 billion purchase of the Trump family–backed World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, a deal that turbocharged the venture’s value. Trump waved off any “pay-for-play” suggestion, saying he’s “too busy” to track the details and noting his sons are the ones “into” crypto, not him:

“They’re running a business, they’re not in government.”

Zhao’s path to that pardon isn’t exactly obscure. The Binance co-founder admitted his platform failed to stop illicit flows, stepped down as CEO, paid billions in penalties and served four months in prison. Critics, including Democrats on Capitol Hill, called the pardon a gift to an industry donor class; even some Trump-aligned tech voices questioned the move. The White House has argued the case was over-prosecuted and that the president used his constitutional authority to correct it.

The crypto throughline matters because World Liberty’s dollar-pegged token saw its footprint explode after Binance’s involvement, with an Abu Dhabi–backed fund reportedly using it to route a multibillion-dollar investment linked to Zhao’s business interests. Trump said he had no knowledge of those specifics and pivoted to a general defense of the sector: the US should lead in digital assets, he argued, or risk ceding ground to China.

Away from crypto, Trump blamed Democrats for the grinding government shutdown and offered no new roadmap to reopen, predicting opponents will eventually “give in.” On health care, he labeled the Affordable Care Act “terrible” and promised better, cheaper coverage without presenting a concrete plan, while reviving familiar claims about benefits for undocumented migrants — despite federal rules barring them from ACA plans and Medicaid.

The exchange left two things crystal clear. First, Trump wants the political upside of championing America’s crypto rise while distancing himself from the messy edges of who profits and how. Second, the pardon of one of the industry’s most powerful figures will shadow that message — especially when the president says he doesn’t know the man he just set free.